Liberty. It’s a simple idea, but it’s also the linchpin of a complex system of values and practices: justice, prosperity, responsibility, toleration, cooperation, and peace. Many people believe that liberty is the core political value of modern civilization itself, the one that gives substance and form to all the other values of social life. They’re called libertarians.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Obama on Hurricane: 'We Leave Nobody Behind'

Today, during a non-campaign campaign stop at the Red Cross,
President Obama told the nation something his administration obviously
didn’t believe during the seven-hour attack on our consulate in Benghazi
(and a nearby annex) on the night of September 11, 2012: That when an
"American is in need… we leave nobody behind":

This is a tough time for a lot of people; millions of folks all
across the Eastern Seaboard, but America's tougher. And we're tougher
because we pull together, we leave nobody behind, we make sure we
respond as a nation and remind ourselves that whenever an American is in
need, all of stand together to make sure we're providing the help
that's necessary.

You can watch the moment in the video embedded below.

That's a beautiful sentiment, Mr.
President, but where was it when the cameras weren't rolling; when your
government heard three plaintive pleas for assistance from Americans
under attack and with help reportedly close enough to make a difference?

Hurricane Sandy has been a study in
Barack Obama's leadership in a time of crisis, and not one that reflects
well on the President. When reelection politics demand Obama remove
himself from the campaign trail and head back to the White House to
"monitor the storm," he did exactly that.

But when those same politics demand
Obama downplay the murder of four Americans in Libya by blaming a
terrorist attack on a YouTube video and then jetting off to Vegas for a
fundraiser the same day he learned of the murders, he did exactly that,
as well.